The Center of Science and Industry in Columbus, Ohio, put together the "Lost Egypt: Ancient Secrets, Modern Science" exhibit, which opens Saturday at Don Harrington Discovery Center. IPad users, tap the photo for more exhibit pictures.

The Center of Science and Industry in Columbus, Ohio, put together the "Lost Egypt: Ancient Secrets, Modern Science" exhibit, which will be on display at Don Harrington Discovery Center from Saturday to Jan. 5.

The Center of Science and Industry in Columbus, Ohio, put together the "Lost Egypt: Ancient Secrets, Modern Science" exhibit, which will be on display at Don Harrington Discovery Center from Saturday to Jan. 5.

Who needs a sharknado when the biggest shark ever known will be swimming into Amarillo?

A pair of major new exhibitions at Don Harrington Discovery Center will introduce viewers to the biggest, most dangerous ocean predators ever known, as well as take an in-depth look at a culture that still fascinates thousands of years after its peak.

“Megalodon: Largest Shark That Ever Lived” and “Lost Egypt: Ancient Secrets, Modern Science” open Saturday and run through Jan. 5 at the Discovery Center, 1200 Streit Drive.

“Typically, we only have one traveling exhibit at a time, so this is pretty impressive,” said Aaron Pan, Discovery Center executive director. “These are usually seen in places like St. Louis, Denver, Los Angeles, San Antonio, so it’s really great to be able to bring this for the people of the Panhandle to enjoy.”

“Megalodon,” on loan from the Florida Museum of Natural History, is centered around a 60-foot walk-through sculpture of the giant shark in a room practically swimming with great whites, hammerheads and more.

“You really can’t believe the scale,” said Jeff Huber, a sculptor at the Florida museum who was installing the exhibition last week.

Scientists have estimated the species’ size through teeth the beasts left behind when they died out more than 2 million years ago, the closest thing to a fossil record that exists.

“Sharks’ bones are actually cartilage, which breaks down very rapidly,” Pan said. “You’ll never see a full skeleton of one of these sharks.”

Viewers, though, will be able to examine a full set of 46 Megalodon teeth, in addition to seeing sculptures made from live casts of modern-day sharks and recreations of some bizarre-looking ancient sharks and learning why the conservation of sharks still matters today.

Across the center, viewers can walk into an immersive re-creation of ancient Egypt, an interactive exhibition that centers around a city that housed pyramid builders on the Giza Plateau.

“Lost Egypt” — developed at the Center of Science and Industry in Columbus, Ohio — devotes about 6,000 square feet to a show focusing on “the science of archaeology ... to give you an idea about what was going on in the past,” Pan said.

“The everyday people of ancient Egypt were very much like us; they had (similar) health issues, they cared about their families, community and religion. They worked for a living to get food, clothing, shelter and a few luxuries,” COSI’s Kate Storm told Ohio magazine when the exhibition originally opened. “Even though we live in a very different world, by looking at ancient Egyptians we can see ourselves.”

The exhibition includes Annie, the mummified remains of an unknown Egyptian teenager found floating in the Nile River between 200 and 300 B.C., as well as mummified animals and artifacts from everyday life for the civilization.

“What I take in the title of the COSI exhibit ‘Lost Egypt’ is that it’s talking about getting back that part of Egypt that is lost, which is all the people and the individuals,” archaeologist Mark Lehner told the Columbus Dispatch when the show opened in Ohio. “We’re trying to reconstruct a whole city and how people lived, so we’ll go for anything: the fabric of the pottery, the sealings, we’ll go for it all.”

Though the pharaohs memorialized by the pyramids have long faded into history books, a fascination with the culture remains.

“It’s just an incredible culture,” Pan said, “with amazing monuments that have endured for thousands and thousands of years."